Our Tax Situation

"The upshot of all this is that the Bush tax cuts have “cost” billions of dollars—and the failure to extend them will cost billions more. You could chalk this up to Glass-Half-Empty Syndrome: No matter what happens, we’re all hosed. But the real explanation is not as bad as that. It’s worse.

The real explanation is that those who fret about the cost of a tax cut are looking at the question from the wrong end of the telescope. They identify with the tax collector, not the taxpayer. Like the accountant for a shoe company, they’re not thinking about how much money you stand to save — but how much they stand to lose."

-Reason